Lenovo Carbon X1 SSD driver and firmware (Samsung SM951)

[snake88]

Hello, 

I have purchased a Samsung SM951 SSD (OEM version)

I am looking for the Lenovo driver that came with the peolples laptops whom purchased that option , when they bought their Gen 3 laptop with the 700$ SSD upgrade option, that would be the SM951 that you upgraded to.

I cannot get it from Samsung because it is an OEM product and do not offer this type of support.

If you have this upgrade please message me and hopefully I can get the driver from you.

Its Lenovo specific, so this is the only place I know to look, it is not listed in the Drivers section of the support page.

Thanks.

[w0qj]

Hello, I have a X1 Carbon Generation 3 (2015) verison with the OEM Samsung SM951 (ACHI) supplied by Lenovo/Thinkpad when shipped to us.

1. If you also have a X1 Carbon Generation 3, just install the SM951 (ACHI version) into notebook, do a factory reinstall from scratch with the X1 Recovery CD, and it should detect it and install everything from there.

2. Also for your information, please note that the Samsung SM951 (NVMe) version *DOES*NOT* boot up in X1 Carbon Generation 3 (2015) as of June 2015.

www.tomshardware.com/reviews/samsung-sm951-nvme-versus-ahci-sata,4137.html

[snake88]

thank you for your reply,

I do indeed have the ACHI version of the SM951 that I am trying to install, 

from what I  am understanding is that Lenovo has put on the vendor specific drivers onto  this drive before it shipped in order for the BIOS to read it, because this particular drive was not inteded for sale to the average customer.

However, I will not be able to  use the windows recovery disc to use this drive because as of right now, without the driver installed on the drive, my computer will not be able to read it.

w0qj, I ask you please to send me the driver (should be less than 300kb size files ,all together) to my email address xxxxx  please?  

its located here ,   WINDOWS\system32\DRIVERS\disc.sys

                 here,    WINDOWS\system32\DRIVERS\EhStorClass.sys

          and here,    WINDOWS\system32\DRIVERS\partmgr.sys

I would appreciate that so much.

Moderator comment: Email address(es) removed to defeat spambots.

[w0qj]

Hi Snake88,

Pls check your internet email, many thanks!

w0qj

[snake88]

Hi w0qj, 

Thanks for replying again. 

I forgot that google does not allow the sending of many types of files.

However, if you have Google Drive they have a file sharing service for times like this, you can upload the file, click on the file after and on the google drive bar, a little icon appears that looks like a little persons head with  a "+" sign beside it. You then click on that , and enter my email address, and do the same for the other file,  that's it. 

or do you have a dropbox account?  if so, you can share a link to me from a public folder that you created.

That would be greatly appreciated if you did one of those things. 

Thank you very much.

[ryanborstelmann]

Was there ever a resolution to this issue? I just got my 3rd Gen X1 Carbon and purhcased an SM951 AHCI SSD (OEM version as well), and the Lenovo throws an Error 2103 that it can't detect SSD0.

Windows 10 install media doesn't see the drive whatsoever.

Thoughts?

[w0qj]

Hello ryanborstelmann,

1. You probably need to send Private Message to snake88 to see exactly what he did; he's gotten the OEM SM951 AHCI SSD to work from the last I've heard from him.

2. I have an X1 Carbon as mentioned above, so I do have two of the three *.sys files that snake88 had asked for.

I'm willing to help to supply these files as needed.
But it seems that only snake88 has this expertise to do this.

(Anyone else can input into this matter?)

[pookguy88]

Snake88, do you think you could post to show what you did to get the SM951 to work in the X1C 3rd gen? I'm about to install it as well and any tips would be appreciated. Thanks!

[w0qj]

Oh, one more (obvious) solution, sorry not to mention this:

1. You can make a Product Recovery DVD(s) from your X1C 3rd gen, using your old hard drive.

2. Shut down your X1, pop in your new OEM SM951 SHCI SSD.

3. Boot up your X1 with DVD machine connected with your 1st Product Recovery DVD inserted, and follow the Product Recovery instructions.

4. This *should* work with your X1C 3rd gen.

(disclaimer: I myself have not done this with X1C 3rd gen. But I do know from personal experience that you can do this for older models that I've used such as Thinkpad T410, T40, etc.)

Good luck!

[pookguy88]

just to update, installed the SM951 last night and it works perfectly on the X1C 3rd gen. Windows 10 setup recognized immediatly, all I did was update the bios of the X1C beforehand.. not sure if that was needed or not.